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A stereo-daguerreotype (86 × 173 mm) of the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855, the first International Exhibition held in France

The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process (1839-1860) in the history of photography. Named after the inventor, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, each daguerreotype is a unique image on a mirror-like silvered surface over a copper plate (Daguerreobase website).

Disderi obtained the rights to photograph the products and artworks at the Exposition as a distinguished daguerreotypist, but his lasting fame is that he took out the first patent for the carte de visite in 1854. Ironically, this inexpensive mass-produced paper photograph hastened the demise of these beautiful precursors.